<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Chances We Take by backwards_silver</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25845685">The Chances We Take</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/backwards_silver/pseuds/backwards_silver'>backwards_silver</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homeland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Astrid realizes some things, Carrie is a hurricane, Carrie stand on Quinn's fucking bomb, Homeland s4 ep11, Quinn needs to admit some truths, these three are a burning building</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:23:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,086</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25845685</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/backwards_silver/pseuds/backwards_silver</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a little thing that popped in my head while I was re-watching season 4 and I wrote it down before it escaped me. I always wondered what Astrid thought of Quinn/Carrie's relationship, considering she was perceptive enough to throw the 'girlfriend' comment in there, I'd imagine that she noticed some other things, too. We see later on that she loved him in her own way, so that factors in a bit here, too. Just some reflections, from a different POV.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Carrie Mathison &amp; Peter Quinn, Carrie Mathison/Peter Quinn, Peter Quinn &amp; Astrid (Homeland), Peter Quinn/Astrid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Chances We Take</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I LIVE for ya'lls feedback, discussing these characters is so fun and interesting, even when it's heartbreaking. Also, if you're a fellow Homeland re-watcher, what's your favorite season of C/Q?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Astrid was waiting for Quinn when he got back, face pressed in a thin line, tense. “How did it go?” She asked. She knew the answer. He wouldn’t be here if he’d managed to kill Haqqani, he’d be holed out, escaping for his life. </p><p>“Didn’t go as planned.” He was distant, upset, she knew him well enough to know he wasn’t one to share. </p><p>“What did she do?” Astrid already knew, if something interfered with his plans, it was that crazy blonde woman, the one who’d already showed up twice on her doorstep, demanding and insistent, wired like she carried the fate of the world in her hands, like she couldn’t be bothered with common courtesy.</p><p>His head snapped up, eyes meeting hers finally with burning intensity as she’d imagined, he was fucking smoldering but not at her. “Stood in the blast zone until Haqqani left.” He snapped, running a hand through his hair, dropping into the nearest chair, suddenly drained. This Carrie woman was a hurricane, the most persistent Astrid had ever seen, in a total of ten minutes she’d had with her, Astrid wondered how anyone put up with it. The one-woman storm. </p><p>“She’s something, alright.” Astrid replied, setting her coffee down to sit across from him. He shook his head, scoffing, “You’re telling me.” She wanted to ask how he tolerated her, Peter wasn’t one for drama, hated complicated people and people that oozed lies to get what they wanted, twisting reality to make it fit their incentives. Carrie seemed like one of those people. Astrid wanted to know what the fuck made her so attached to Quinn, how he’d become important enough to her that she’d risked her job and her life to stay behind, hunting him down and standing on the very bomb he built, trusting that he would never pull the trigger. Clearly she meant something to him, but the trust went both ways, apparently. Astrid wasn’t sure she’d stand in front of Peter’s one-man revenge mission and take her chances with her life in his hands when he was as angry as he was now. </p><p>So maybe it was just that, Carrie was crazy and this was her reckless move, unable to let go of Quinn because she had to be right. But Astrid was pretty damn sure it wasn’t that. The voicemail she’d left, now that was real. Carrie had sounded close to tears, seeking solace in Peter of all people. There was most certainly a story there.</p><p>“Who is she to you?” Astrid asked, genuinely curious. </p><p>“A coworker.” He said shortly, at her skeptical eyebrow raise he sighed, “We’ve worked together a lot.”</p><p>“So that’s why she risked her life to stop you, because you work together a lot?” Astrid tried not to let her annoyance shine through but she was genuinely pissed. Quinn was many things but he’d never been anything less than brutally honest with her and it was one of the things she appreciated the most about him. This was something different, something buried in him that he was reluctant to dig out. Or maybe he was lying to himself, either way she didn’t like it.</p><p>“Like I said, she’s used to getting her way.” He stood up, conversation ended, took her empty mug to the sink. She rolled her eyes, following him. “For fuck’s sake, Peter, I’ve know you for how many years? You think that’s going to fool me?” She watched the tense line of his shoulders as he washed the cup. He was avoiding this like it scared him, she thought. Peter, scared? Never. </p><p>“Why do you care?” He settled with finally, turning around. He’d replaced the signs of anger with a carefully constructed mask of indifference, one she’d seen many a time before. “You’re hiding something, Peter, this isn’t like you. Why is she so important to you?” </p><p>He searched her eyes, thinking, jaw twitching, called out. “It’s not like that.” </p><p>Astrid didn’t believe it for a second, but she knew it was the truth, at least logically speaking. He wouldn’t have said it if there was something that was like that going on, but she could it was plaguing him inside. Nonetheless, the topic was over, she wouldn’t get more from him on the subject. She wondered if he’d heard the voicemail, figured it would likely change some things if he did. It new territory, this place they were in. She’d been accustomed to his coming and going, for the most part. It was fun, the little flings they had, a little break from the shadows of their work. She’d come to like him more than she’d like to admit, looked forward to seeing him again. But they both held back some crucial parts of themselves from each other, there but not there. In body, together, but not in soul. They were both too smart for that. Too jaded. </p><p>But this side of Quinn, this Peter that had let himself get somehow attached, she didn’t recognize it. Thought it impossible for him, that his self-protection mechanisms were too strong, built far too high to ever be surmounted, after all the things he’d been through. And yet she’d been proven wrong, and it hurt more than she thought it would. She’d taken for granted that he’d always just show up eventually, floating through the same city as her by some chance of fate and they’d cross paths once again, find solace in each other for a weekend like they did. Instead, it was possible she might never see him again, if this CIA woman had her way, she’d drag him back kicking and screaming, by whatever means necessary. And the part that stung the most was that Carrie didn’t even see it, everything Quinn was. She didn’t know him, not entirely, didn’t know his demons, his past, or at least the parts he’d been willing to tell about, didn’t know all of the ways he’d sacrificed himself for the mission, for his team, for the people he worked with, probably for Carrie, too. </p><p>Astrid knew it was baseless, this protectiveness she felt over Quinn, but it was there nonetheless, she didn’t know Carrie all that well but her mind supplied that she didn't deserve him. It was pointless, though, because finally Peter learned that Carrie’s father had died. He already knew it would be impossible to get another chance at Haqqani, and he was gone again. Astird knew that if she ever saw him again, it wouldn’t be the same.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>